Interview: Chris Pratt & Edwin Hodge Talk The Tomorrow War

Directed by Chris McKay, The Tomorrow War is a sci-fi action flick that releases on Amazon Prime Video today. The film features a star-studded cast featuring Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Edwin Hodge, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Matthews, and Keith Powers.

“The world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species,” says the official synopsis. “The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight. Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester (Chris Pratt). Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.”

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese got to quickly chat with The Tomorrow War stars Chris Pratt and Edwin Hodge about the film’s message and their respective characters. Check out the video interview below or read the full transcript.

Tyler Treese: Chris, one scene early on in The Tomorrow War really stuck with me. It was when your students are kind of disengaged and they don’t really have any hope for the future, so they don’t care about class. There are a lot of teens growing up today that kind of feel the same way to a lesser extent. The film’s message is really about making the best of what you have. So can you speak to sort of that fear of the future and why it’s important to really cherish what we do have?

Chris Pratt: Yeah, You said it. I think that’s a message that’s important to convey. I’m not sure how to convey it because I don’t know if saying it is enough. You hope that maybe in some of the movies that I can make something such as this, you might be able to get that message across, but it is an important message to get across. I think it’s one of perspective and having an understanding that no matter where you are, you can be doing better and no matter where you are, you can be doing worse. To have either perspective is really a vision issue, which vision do you want for your life? The one where you want to constantly be doing better and you’re never satisfied, or the one where you know that you could be doing worse and you’re filled with gratitude? I think the latter is better for the soul. It’s better for the heart, and I think that living in that doesn’t prevent you from trying to make changes to the future. It just positions you to be able to be a person who can make changes to the future because you’re not mired in the depression and the reality of being a human being.

It seems like you knew how to put that perfectly after all.

Chris: Honest to God, I just blacked out. I have no idea what I said. Was it good?

Edwin Hodge: It was a good answer.

Chris: Oh, sick!

Edwin, your character is very interesting because he knows that he’s going to die soon. He puts himself through these tours of duties so he can die on his terms. It’s a really powerful statement. How were you able to relate to Dorian and him struggling with his mortality and wanting to really give back?

Edwin: I just had to look at the outside world to kind of figure out who Dorian is. I haven’t experienced that life personally, so it was a lot of exploring close friends of mine. Some friends of mine have served in the military. I talked to a lot of folks suffering from PTSD and just understanding their concept of life and what it means to them. You know, why do they continue to fight? In the moment they feel like they want to give up. What’s keeping them from making that last-ditch decision? This is who Dorian is. He is someone who’s accepted his fate. He doesn’t know if it’s going to be by his own accord or if it’s going to be the aliens, but he understands that there’s a bigger purpose and cause, and he had to find it. I think meeting Chris Pratt’s character, Dan, helps him with that purpose a little bit.